My academic and work experiences in library school constantly reaffirm how significant a role professional development will play in the trajectory of my career. Professional development for librarians takes many forms: conferences, webinars, literature searches, workshops, etc. and these elements are well-documented in literature. There is little research, however, on massive open online courses, or MOOCs, as a tool for professional development and I think there is massive opportunity for it.
Much of a librarian’s professional development is spent outside of regular working hours, attending conferences, doing coursework, doing workshops. In fact, LIS was host to what may be considered an early iteration of the MOOC: 23 things, an online program offering technology training to library staff starting in 2006. 23 mobile things came several years later and updated the focus of 23 things from a library 2.0 focus to a mobile one.
Librarians, then, are no strangers to the ideas associated with MOOCs. How then, do MOOCs, as they came to be known in 2008, fit into what is often a rigorous professional development schedule?
First, let’s start with a short video Dave Cormier, an educational activist, researcher, and online community advocate, made that describes MOOCs.
As Cormier says in the video, MOOCs are online courses that are:
- Open
- Participatory
- Distributed, and that
- Support life-long networked learning
Second, why are MOOCs suitable as a professional development tool for librarians?
- you can learn skills like design and coding
- you can learn about subject areas like finance to augment your library’s programming offerings
- many MOOCs are taught by academics who are experts in their fields
- the medium provides the flexibility to learn at your own pace within the timelines of the course
- they allow the learner to interact with classmates from around the world
- they are free!
Can you think of others to add to my list?
And finally, what MOOC platforms are there and what can I learn from each one?
Coursera: over 800 courses across many disciplines from 108 universities from around the world. Courses are available in the arts and humanities, social sciences, computer science, education, economics, and medicine.
EdX: 463 courses in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, computer science, economics and finance, statistics and more.
Khan Academy: over 6500 videos curated by content specialists and hosted on YouTube. Topics range from math, science, economics and finance, to arts and humanities and computing. The target audience is elementary and high school students, with some university-level offerings.
Udacity: the only one of the big four that focuses specifically on professional development, Udacity offers approximately 70 courses in data science, web development, software engineering, Android and OS development, and a few non-tech. It also offers nanodegrees for a fee.
References
Massis, B. E. (2013). MOOCs and the library. New Library World, 114(5), 267-270. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03074801311326894
Hoy, M. B. (2014). MOOCs 101: An Introduction to Massive Open Online Courses. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 33(1), 85-91. doi:10.1080/02763869.2014.866490
Stephens, M., & Jones, K. L. (2014). MOOCs as LIS Professional Development Platforms: Evaluating and Refining SJSU’s First Not-for-Credit MOOC. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 55(4), 345-361.